Sylvia Thompson: A Confederate flag does not divide us; leftist ideology does

A Confederate flag does not divide us; leftist ideology does

Sylvia ThompsonJune 24, 2015

If Governor Nikki Haley thinks that removing a flag from a capitol building will do anything to alleviate the racial hatred fomented by Barack Obama over the past several years, and the Left throughout the country’s history, she is sadly mistaken. Not only Governor Haley, but every conservative thinker who follows her lead have fallen into the web of deceit that the Left always uses to entrap the gullible.

I recall over the years having seen white supremacists with American flags flying. Their position is that America is being taken away from them by foreigners and people who had no part in forming this nation. Is Old Glory to be the next target because social undesirables use it as a symbol for whatever?

Governor Haley is not part of the black-white heritage of this country, so I don’t expect her to understand more than that a heinous crime has been committed in her state and that she genuinely grieves for the victims and their families. She, however, is being used big time. So are all the others clamoring for the removal and destruction of flags and Civil War monuments in southern states, and even statues in Washington, DC. History happened, folks, that’s what makes it history. You can hide it and distort it, but you will never do away with it.

Since the end of the Civil War, many on the side of the Northern faction of the fight have done their best to demean, denigrate and punish white people of the South. I know this because I was born and reared in the South. The sneering at and looking down upon Southerners, black and white, by some from other parts of the country have become a pastime, these days.

In my reading of history, President Andrew Johnson, the successor to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, succeeded in making Reconstruction (the rebuilding of the postwar South) a vindictive program that hurt even repentant Southerners while benefiting northern opportunists (Carpetbaggers) and cynical white Southerners (Scalawags). All of whom exploited alliances with blacks for political gain.

This acerbation of wounds bred a hatred and resentment among defeated Southerners that played out against freed slaves, the only defenseless people in their midst. And so it goes even to this twenty-first century, capitalizing on old hatreds. One can only wonder how much better this nation would have fared had Lincoln lived to negotiate the South’s surrender.

Today’s opportunists taking advantage of black folks are called Leftists: Marxist types, some claiming the mantle of Christianity; garden-variety evil doers of all stripes; and of course the elitist class of well-heeled people who think only they are fit to rule over us, the sweaty masses. A primary goal of the Left is to ensure that the age-old rift between American blacks and whites is never resolved, because blacks will no longer be enslaved to them if it is resolved.

The massacre at the church in Charleston is just another source of leftist exploitation. While everybody’s guard is down, it is a good time to advance a few infractions against the rights of some Americans to maintain their history, a history that is, by the way, part and parcel of American history.

Do not ever believe that taking down a flag will be the end of it. The Left will demand no less than the destruction of America’s soul.

On another note, heinous crime, such as the one that Dylann Roof committed, usually switches our focus to the issues of hate and forgiveness. The survivors of victims of Roof’s massacre have puzzled the public with their decision to forgive him. There is nothing puzzling about a mature Christian’s view of hatred. We understand that hating gets you nowhere, except stressed out and at odds with Christ’s teachings. Only people who do not have a strong grasp of Scripture and the person of Christ are baffled by Christians acting like Christians.

Forgiveness in the biblical sense, however, is sometimes not well understood. We can only forgive someone for what they do to us directly. Dennis Prager, the columnist and radio talk show host, makes this point in one of his recent articles on the events in Charleston.* The survivors can only forgive Roof for the pain and loss that he caused to them. They cannot forgive the deaths of their loved ones; only their dead relatives can forgive him for that. And they are no longer in a position to do so; therefore, Roof must eventually face Almighty God to sue for forgiveness.

Prager, in his article, also offers that it is time for all blacks who hold hatred and animosity toward white Americans to consider forgiving them, now that as a nation, we are contemplating forgiveness. It is fact that Barack Obama and all of his leftist ilk have exacerbated underlying hatred that, over the decades, was being rooted out of the psyche of many Americans of all races. It takes only a few small, hateful men, however, to bring down what so many good people built up. If we get rid of those hate mongers among us (remove them from power and to the ash bin of history where they belong), this nation just might survive.

Sylvia Thompson is a black conservative writer whose aim is to counter the liberal spin on issues pertaining to race and culture.

Ms. Thompson is a copy editor by trade currently residing in Tennessee. She formerly wrote for the Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley California Newsletter and the online conservative blog ChronWatch, also out of California.

She grew up in Southeast Texas during the waning years of Jim Crow-era legalized segregation, and she concludes that race relations in America will never improve, nor will we ever elevate our culture, as long as there are victims to be pandered to and villains to be vilified. America is better served without victims or villains.